Another Chance
by Mo0ngazer
Summary: Cinderpelt is trapped. But dying isn't the only thing she is afraid of; what about being dead? And what about her ambition? It isn't fair that she could never become the warrior she always wanted to be! Oneshot. PLEASE READ & REVIEW! Spoilers!


_**Cinderpelt**_

The pounding of the badgers' paws were all around her, filling Cinderpelt's ears and chest like her own wildly pounding heart. She spat a curse the badger coming towards them, and Brackenfur snarled and lunged at the lumbering attacker, protecting his sister and his mate's unborn kits. They were soon battling as hard as the rest of the cats and badgers in the ravine, full of flying fur and blood, snapping jaws and pounding feet were. Cinderpelt turned and hobbled back into the nursery.

Sorreltail lay on her side, her stomach rippling and her breathing coming in short gasps as she struggled to give birth. Cinderpelt picked up the bundle of herbs that were lying beside her, and began to chew them up.

_I chewed up the borage, and licked up some poppy seeds for my patient. She seemed to be doing all right, aside from the fact that we were being invaded by badgers while she gave birth. I wasn't panicking; I knew what I was doing, or I thought I did._

"Sorreltail! Cinderpelt!" came Brackenfur's pained screech. Sorreltail's head snapped up, and she tried to yell back, but Cinderpelt silenced her, and trotted towards the entrance to the nursery. She never made it out.

A huge black badger was charging through the entrance, growling and snarling, its huge paws smashing up the strong walls of the nursery. Cinderpelt had only a heartbeat to register a lump of tabby fur outside; Brackenfur had been wounded, and the badger had gotten past her brother; and then the badger was upon them.

_The badger was everywhere; all around us, on top of us, below, on every side at once, its_ _stench filling our nostrils, I was gagging and trying to protect Sorreltail and help Brackenfur and save myself from a horrid death, panic filling me. _

Then suddenly it all seemed familiar.

Too familiar.

_I realized where I was and what I was seeing: my last heartbeats alive, for the second time. But it was too early for this—I was still helping Sorreltail, still teaching Leafpool—Leafpool! She was gone! ThunderClan would have no medicine cat! She had run off, and I had thought my apprentice was an understanding, selfless, compassionate medicine cat, but I had thought wrong! _

_And it wasn't fair—I had wanted so much to be a warrior, loyal to my clan and my mentor, but Tigerstar—it was all his fault, and I could never be the warrior I had tried and wanted so hard to be. It was just so unfair! _

Suddenly the whole world was surreal and unbelievably focused; every detail of Cinderpelt's last moments in ThunderClan sharp, each color unusually bright, and her head as clear as a leaf-bare morning. Suddenly, she knew what to do.

_It was the hardest thing I've ever done, but I just plunged right into it, because, I knew,_ _if I hesitated, I would never bring myself to do it. _

_I jumped._

Cinderpelt had no training aside from some useless hunting skills, and a few equally useless battle moves, both courtesy of her useless leg, and with badgers, she had neither experience, nor any idea of how to fight them. So she leapt awkwardly at it before it could reach Sorreltail, who was half conscious in a corner of the nursery. The huge badger had already crushed most of the nursery, and as Cinderpelt leapt at it, she felt one last string thoughts and memories shoot through her skull.

_Leafpool, an apprentice, learning about where to find chervil;_

_Firestar, just a warrior, teaching me how to hunt;_

_Brackenfur, beaming as he received his warrior name;_

_Tigerstar, writhing and twisting as his nine lives were torn out of him all at once; _

_Bluestar, her eyes flashing as she leapt at an invading rogue;_

_Yellowfang, my mentor, smiling her crotchety grin;_

_And me; the monster swerving as it tried to avoid hitting me, the snow falling around me as I trekked up through the mountains, the tree-eating monster smashing through the forest towards me, and I was falling, falling, falling..._

_Back into the nursery. But only for a heartbeat. _

The badger swatted her aside with a huge paw, and she tumbled through the air her ribs broken, her heart breaking, and she hit the ground with a crash that only she heard, with a shattering feeling that only she could feel, and a blackness enveloped her for the last time, a darkness that nobody would never be able to pull her from.

_I was gone. _

_I fell fast for what seemed like seasons, or heartbeats, and then I smelled her. It was Yellowfang, my mentor. She was coming for me. _

_"Cinderpelt," she said. "I could hardly be prouder of you. You have come so far, and you will go still further." I looked up at her. She looked normal, except that her matted fur was cleaner and glossier, though not much, and her pelt was glowing with sparkling starlight. I bowed my head. _

"_Thank you, Yellowfang," I mewed. Then I noticed what she had just said. "Wait... I will go... further?"_

"_Yes, you will," she replied simply. "Your hopes and dreams were shattered by a ruthless cat, and it is time to fix that." She bowed her head and vanished, and everything went blurry, even my thoughts, and all I could hear as I tumbled through the air again was Yellowfang's voice. _

"_Good luck, Cinderkit." _


End file.
